How much longer????

[Neubob]

Originally posted by AKH
That's another one of your random facts, isn't it.

Well, since you were the one who originally delivered this quote:

Originally posted by AKH
Actually, we usually politely advise them to p*ss off back to America, where they belong.

I figured it was one of yours. I'm assuming you may have meant it in a less than serious tone. If that's the case, you can consider my reply to be of the same nature. If not, however, it would seem odd tha tyou take the time to send Mormons back to America but not Muslims back to... wherever. Surely the minority within a minority of which you speak has more potential for disruption and violence than a couple geeks in which shirts and black pants.

[AKH]

Originally posted by Seagoon
Hello Mr. Ripley,

 

Actually, they didn't. While there was considerable rampaging going on during the dark ages, very little of it was in the name of Christianity. For instance, the premier sack and pillagers of the time, the Vikings, were believers in the Norse Gods throughout that period and they sacked and pillaged for fun and profit. When they were finally Christianized by missionaries, their raiding activities ground to a halt.

The original conversion of Europe to Christianity was not accomplished by the sword or by armies, it was accomplished by individuals like Patrick. Patrick was a Briton taken as child to be a slave in Ireland, who escaped but felt a call to return there and preach the gospel, and without arms or coercion and with only his voice, the gospel, and the Paraclete in his arsenal was used in the conversion of the nation.  That kind of story was repeated throughout Europe as men like Augustine, Columba, and Boniface, went unarmed and often alone into the midst of pagan nations preaching the gospel and were eventually granted success, and that often at the same time that Islam was being spread by the Sword in the Middle East.

The difference between the two religions really was that one was spread by preaching and the other by the sword. For centuries Muslims have not been ashamed of that, in fact most Muslim histories proudly proclaim that it was Allah who gave them victory over their enemies. You see to Muslims, Christianity and its methods and message are weak. In personal witnessing to Muslims, I have been told outright that the message of a Savior who dies a humiliating death on the cross for the sins of others is weak and dishonorable. It is far better, I was once told by a Yemeni Taxi cab driver, to believe in Muhammad than Jesus, because only Muhammad was a great and strong fighter who led his armies to victory.

The message of Christianity, though is not victory through strength and self-reliance, but what the world would call victory through weakness and total dependence on God for salvation:

"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are" (1 Cor. 1:21-28)

You're absolutely right Seagoon, since there are no recorded instances where a Christian has piously claimed that it was God who gave them victory over their enemies.  Not a one.

[AKH]

Originally posted by Neubob
I figured it was one of yours. I'm assuming you may have meant it in a less than serious tone. If that's the case, you can consider my reply to be of the same nature. If not, however, it would seem odd tha tyou take the time to send Mormons back to America but not Muslims back to... wherever. Surely the minority within a minority of which you speak has more potential for disruption and violence than a couple geeks in which shirts and black pants.

No, I wasn't being serious.  They usually get a "Thanks, but no thanks," as do most people who try to sell to me at my door.  I think it's safe to assume that the UK deports more Muslims than Mormons.

Having said that, no Muslim has ever attempted to convert me to Islam, even when discussing faith with them.  I've certainly never had one on the doorstep trying to give me the "Good News."

Of course we have to deal with the extremists, but we have to do so in a fair and reasonable manner.  

"It is about protecting the believer, not the belief."

[Excel1]

Nuke the bastards back to the stone age, sounds fair and reasonable to me.

They are heading that way anyway, and it's not as though they haven't got a choice; retarded evolution my arse. We will just be speeding the process up a little, and at the same time have a decent shot at preventing them dragging the rest of us down with them.

Religion has bugger all to do with it, it's an ideological clash. Religion is just a vehicle the Imams are using to grab power by brainwashing the sheep into soldiers.

Sometimes the ends justify the means. If it didn't, the latter half of the twentieth century, and including up to the present time, would have been a lot shirtier for a lot of people than it actually was/is.

[lukster]

Originally posted by AKH
Hey Iron :-)  What's up, can't you get any decent political arguments on the WoW boards?

The extremists are a minority group within a minorty group.

I gave up trying to discuss anything there. You can post and literally 5 minutes later that thread is 10 pages down.